The portrayal of a true life hijacking on the high seas gives way to Tom Hanks’ best performance in years, in the gripping and emotionally powerful Captain Phillips.
Sometimes the acting gods have to remind us just how good they are. Tom Hanks is a thespian that definitely fits that description, although his more recent output has generated discussion about how funny his hair looks rather than the quality of his performances (thank you, Da Vinci Code).
There is no risk for such fashion faux pas in Captain Phillips. Based on a true story the film stars Hanks as Richard Phillips, the captain of commercial container ship the “Maersk Alabama” that was hijacked by a group of Somali pirates in 2009. Phillips was taken hostage by the pirates, which led to a tense standoff with the U.S. Navy.
Director Paul Greengrass was the perfect choice to bring this story to the big screen, with his intimate, shaky cam style -that brought palpable urgency in 9/11 thriller United 93 and changed how action movies were made with Bourne’s Supremacy and Ultimatum - providing the right amount of tension and gritty dramatics while leaving room for the English filmmaker’s always pointed political commentary.
In this case that commentary revolves around Somali pirate Muse, played by first time actor Barkhad Abdi, whose own story of Somali native to Minnesota limo driver to starring opposite Tom Hanks is a movie within itself!
Vital to Greengrass and screenwriter Billy Ray’s take on these events are the motives behind Muse’s decision to take part in such a risky, illegal enterprise. Blame is given to commercial fishing by Americans in African waters that robbed Somali men of a livelihood, a claim which the real Richard Philips has labelled bogus on numerous occasions. “There has got to be something other than killing people?” asks the on screen Phillips to his kidnappers. “Maybe in America” replies Muse to the swoons of bleeding hearts everywhere.
While Greengrass and Ray do not wholly convince in establishing sympathy for the wiry Somali pirate with a heart of gold, they hit a home-run in the portrayal of the good Captain’s plight in large part due to Hanks’ phenomenal performance.
Where the first two acts has Greengrass and Hanks on equal footing in portraying this battle of smarts and wills between pirates and their captor, the third act sees Hanks run away with the movie in stunningly portrayed scenes of emotional power. One particular scene where a physically and psychologically battered Phillips cries out for his family as all goes to hell around him, reminds why Hanks is a back-to-back Oscar winner and will have even the hardest of hard men tearing up while gripping their seats at the suspense of it all.
Captain Phillips is the best kind of emotionally charged filmmaking: it will thrill, it will engross and it will move you to reach out to those you love and embrace them. |